Juno News - Canada’s migrant crisis is too serious to ignore

00:00:00.040 Canada's premiers have turned their focus to asylum seekers in our country as the situation

00:00:12.960 has simply become too big to ignore. A record of over 140,000 people entered Canada last year

00:00:19.440 seeking asylum and of that number, 90% settle in either Ontario or Quebec. Francois Legault

00:00:27.000 is speaking up and saying enough is enough. And when it comes to Doug Ford, well it's not exactly

00:00:32.880 clear where he stands on this asylum seeker issue. It's as if he wants to say that there are too many

00:00:38.200 entering Ontario, which there are, but he doesn't want to come across as being anti-immigration. So

00:00:43.720 instead he boasts, he proudly boasts about Ontario's record population growth. And on top of that he

00:00:50.640 wants the federal government to give all of Ontario's asylum seekers work permits. And on the other hand

00:00:56.160 Danielle Smith, who really is turning out to be quite a disappointment on immigration,

00:01:00.640 is now saying that Alberta is taking in too many as well. Manitoba and Newfoundland meanwhile are the

00:01:06.800 only two provinces in Canada publicly asking to take more. We all know that this is completely

00:01:12.440 unsustainable. We can't go on with a policy of mass immigration while also being the landing ground for 1.00

00:01:18.540 the world's asylum seekers. When our people are struggling to be able to afford rent and to enter 1.00

00:01:23.040 the housing market, and when our young people can't find work and are struggling to put food on

00:01:27.520 their table, we can't be in a position where provincial and federal governments are spending

00:01:31.840 billions of dollars a year to house asylum seekers in hotels. Besides equalization, this seems to be the

00:01:38.400 main topic of debate between premiers and Justin Trudeau. So let's bring you up to speed on what

00:01:43.200 premiers are saying about this. Before we do, however, be sure to drop a like on this video, help us

00:01:47.520 up with subscribing to the True North YouTube channel. And the comment question for the episode

00:01:51.440 is this. Should Canada put a cap on asylum claims? Let me know your answer in the comments section below

00:01:58.320 and let's get into it. As it stands right now, there are currently over 597,000 non-permanent

00:02:04.640 residents living in Quebec. And of that number, 190,000 are asylum seekers. It's too much! It's too much! 1.00

00:02:12.960 Of course, that number is completely ridiculous. You have to start thinking about where these

00:02:17.760 people are going to live, how they're going to be able to contribute to the economy, how they're

00:02:22.240 going to fit into Quebec culture and Canadian culture. And to Francois Legault, the situation is

00:02:28.080 untenable. How much success did you have last night speaking to the other premiers trying to convince

00:02:32.000 them to take on more asylum seekers? First, I want to keep private discussions private,

00:02:37.760 but I think it's clear that it doesn't make sense right now. We have 190,000 asylum seekers.

00:02:48.480 We cannot afford housing reasons. We don't have enough teachers. We don't have enough nurses. And

00:02:55.760 the future of France on the island of Montreal is in place. So we really need to first decrease this

00:03:04.080 number. Of course, some are open to transfer some asylum seekers in other provinces. Some are not,

00:03:14.960 because most of them are not qualified. So other provinces, they would like to have only qualified immigrants. 0.99

00:03:23.360 Francois Legault's request to Canadian premiers in the federal government isn't to lower the number

00:03:29.280 of asylum seekers allowed to enter the country. Instead, it seems to be to ship these asylum seekers 0.94

00:03:35.600 to other provinces, spread them out across the country more evenly. And as you could have guessed,

00:03:40.800 the situation in Ontario is equally as bad. In 2023, it was calculated that the number of non-permanent

00:03:47.520 residents living in Ontario was over 1.2 million people. And by January 1st of 2024, the beginning

00:03:54.800 of the year, the number of asylum claimants in Ontario was 124,000. And that number in January 1st of

00:04:02.800 2023 was only 77,000, an increase of over 47,000. And what's even more striking is that Ontario's

00:04:12.160 non-permanent resident population increased by 42% from the year prior. At the beginning of 2023,

00:04:19.520 the number of non-permanent residents was at 844,000. Now, as I said before, that number is over

00:04:26.880 1.2 million. And so when Doug Ford took the mic last week at the premier's meeting in Halifax,

00:04:31.840 of course, he was able to admit the obvious that Ontario is taking in a lot of refugees, far too many. 1.00

00:04:37.760 But of course, Ford went a step further, calling on the federal government to speed up work permit

00:04:43.120 processing for all of these asylum seekers. After all, what are they going to do if they're just 1.00

00:04:48.240 living in hotels and not really doing anything, just collecting benefits?

00:04:52.160 I think when it comes to asylum seekers, both Quebec and Ontario share the front of it. And we're just

00:05:00.400 asking the federal government to give our fair share. We've spent over a billion dollars in Ontario

00:05:04.800 every single year. And I talk to these folks, I have quite a few of them up in my riding,

00:05:12.800 and they want to work. They want a better life. And it's taking way too long to get a working visa

00:05:19.280 from the federal government. We've received just Toronto, we've received about 162 million,

00:05:26.080 but we're spending over a billion dollars. So we need the working visa for these folks as quickly as

00:05:33.200 possible. Now, according to Doug Ford, the province of Ontario is spending over a billion dollars a year

00:05:38.480 to house asylum seekers. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith and British Columbia Premier David Eby

00:05:43.840 were both asked by reporters if they were willing to lighten the load off of Ontario and Quebec and

00:05:48.800 take in more refugees. But they also are taking in quite a lot. So they're running into the same

00:05:53.920 problems. Where do we house these people? And how do we make sure that the needs of our own

00:05:58.400 Canadian citizens, those that live in our respective provinces, are being put first?

00:06:04.000 I can tell you Alberta is now the destination for 22% of newcomers to Canada, even though we're only

00:06:10.800 12% of the population. So I would say that both Quebec and Alberta share an interest in having the

00:06:16.160 federal government support those asylum seekers so that we can provide the social services, provide the

00:06:21.920 integration, provide the language training. And I've watched that Premier Legolas has some success in

00:06:28.400 getting the federal government to meet its commitment. We would like them to meet the same

00:06:30.800 commitment in Alberta. The only two provinces in Canada willing to actually take in more asylum

00:06:35.600 seekers happen to be Manitoba and Newfoundland. You know, I'd be curious to know what Manitobans

00:06:40.800 and Newfoundlanders think about that idea. Would they like for their provincial governments to be

00:06:45.520 spending hundreds of millions of dollars to assist asylum seekers? Look at this data compiled by

00:06:50.880 Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to show you just simply how big of an issue this really

00:06:56.800 is. Asylum claims into Canada have skyrocketed over the past two years. 2022 with 91,700 asylum claims

00:07:06.080 was its own record, only to be surpassed by last year's numbers at 144,000. In 2023, the majority of

00:07:13.360 asylum claims came from people fleeing Mexico. Underneath Mexico, you had India, Nigeria, 1.00

00:07:20.880 Turkey and Colombia. I want to now point you to this very important piece of data compiled again

00:07:27.600 by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. It's broken down in the first three months of 2023

00:07:34.240 and then for the rest of the year. In March of 2023, the federal government shut down Roxham Road,

00:07:41.440 the infamous illegal point of entry in Quebec where so many asylum seekers would enter Canada. Before the

00:07:48.160 federal government shut down Roxham Road, 45% of asylum claims came between official ports of entry.

00:07:55.280 That's just another way of saying they came into this country at an illegal entry point. After the 0.99

00:08:01.120 federal government shut down Roxham Road, 54% of asylum claims were made inland. They were made once

00:08:08.640 people had already entered Canada, followed by airports, people flying into Canada and immediately

00:08:15.040 claiming asylum upon landing in our country. And then you have land ports of entry and then you have

00:08:21.360 0.1% of asylum claims coming from illegal points of entry. That decision to shut down Roxham Road was

00:08:30.960 part of the safe third country agreement with the United States. It seems as though the majority of

00:08:36.640 asylum seekers in Canada are being housed in hotels at the federal government's expense, at your expense.

00:08:43.520 It would follow that they're also being fed at your expense as well. But it's very clear that this entire

00:08:49.360 situation is becoming untenable. And if Canada is bound by international law to continue accepting

00:08:56.960 infinite numbers of asylum seekers simply because they make a claim of asylum upon entering Canada,

00:09:03.600 how exactly does this problem ever get fixed? Infinite growth is simply untenable in Canada. We are not

00:09:11.040 prepared for such rapid increases in population growth. It might make GDP numbers look good, but it doesn't

00:09:18.560 help Canadians. It hurts Canadians. We have the data to prove that. GDP per capita is decreasing. Canadians

00:09:26.640 are getting poorer. No matter where they come from, Canadians are not benefiting from infinite population 0.92

00:09:34.400 growth. But according to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, this is all cause for celebration.

00:09:41.680 Friends, as everyone in this room knows, this region is growing at a rapid pace. Matter of fact, not just this region,

00:09:49.680 Ontario is the fastest growing region in North America, bar none. And I'll give you one example.

00:09:57.600 When you talk to two great governors, one from Florida and Texas, they love saying,

00:10:02.880 we're the fastest growing state in the US. And yes, they're the fastest growing states.

00:10:08.080 They bring in 1000 people a day. So that's 365,000 each state. Last year, we brought in over 800,000 people.

00:10:17.040 So we're bringing more people than both Texas and Florida combined. Over 16 million people will

00:10:24.160 surpass New York state in probably another five, six years. And what has all this done to Ontario?

00:10:30.400 Does Ontario feel like a better province to live in now? Does it feel like a more united province? Does

00:10:37.520 it feel like a province where families can actually start a life for themselves and raise their children? Or does

00:10:45.040 it feel like it's maybe getting a little bit worse? Does it not feel like the province your parents

00:10:50.160 might have grown up in? Are all these new people making you wealthier, making you feel more

00:10:54.800 financially stable? The comments underneath this video are quite telling. Yeah, that's why Ontario is

00:11:00.480 getting worse. Odd flex when your province's economy is performing worse than Alabama and Mississippi

00:11:06.800 combined. I hate what they've done to the once beautiful Ontario and Toronto. Rest in peace,

00:11:12.480 Ontario healthcare. Some may take this commentary to be just out and out anti-refugee. That's fine. 1.00

00:11:18.800 I don't really care what they have to say, but it's just simply not true. I'm sure there are plenty

00:11:22.880 of stories of refugees who have come to this country and have made an impact, have done good for this

00:11:29.120 country and have contributed to this country. But the reality is simply this. Canadians are falling

00:11:34.400 behind. Our standard of living seems to be dropping. Whatever graphs and statistics may say,

00:11:40.160 we're getting poorer in this country. We're not getting wealthier. Things are more expensive.

00:11:44.960 It's impossible to afford housing and to even afford rent in many cases. We're not in a position

00:11:50.800 to house the refugees of the world anymore. I don't think we ever were in a position, but that has been 1.00

00:11:57.360 part of Canada's global image. Things change. Situations evolve. We're living through that right now.

00:12:03.600 And when it comes to housing infinite numbers of asylum seekers, we are not in the position we were in 1.00

00:12:10.400 10 years ago. Now is just not the time to expand this program. It clearly and obviously is the time

00:12:17.760 to restrict it. All right, everyone, that's going to do it for us today on the show. Thank you so much

00:12:21.840 for tuning in. My name is Harrison Faulkner and this is Ratio.

Juno News - July 23, 2024

Canada’s migrant crisis is too serious to ignore

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript